Prince of Outcasts

Emberverse #13

by S.M. Stirling

A postapocalyptic landscape of medieval and mystical monarchies ruling and warring across a world where mysterious Powers removed advanced technology.

A new alliance has been forged between the High Kingdom of Montival and the Empire of Japan, but at the cost of a lost prince. . . .

John Arminger Mackenzie wanted to be a troubadour, but fate made him the son of the king of Montival. His sister Princess Órlaith will deservedly inherit the throne of the High Kings, and it will only pass unto him in the event of her death, leaving the young Prince on an unknown path to discover his true role in the family. 

The opportunity to prove his mettle comes when John’s ship, the Tarshish Queen, is caught in the fierce storm raised against the enemies of the alliance. When the clouds recede and the skies clear, John and his crew find themselves on the other side of the Pacific, in the island chains of the Ceram Sea, fighting to survive against vicious pirates and monstrous creatures of the deep, meeting new allies and mysterious enemies of this world and another. 

Now, Prince John must seize his birthright and lead his people in battle against the darkest forces man and nature can conjure against them

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Alternate History, Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy

418 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2016

About the author

Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.

MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY:
(personal website: source)

I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.

Reviews

[Sean Smart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Stirling's work but this is not his best. It has too many actions where nothing happens and lots of missed opportunities. His books used to have so much going on; wars, quests, adventure, etc and although elements are present they seem confusing and rare.

The series too seems ongoing with no end in sight. It feels like he is stretching out the story as far as it will go and further.

Fans will probably enjoy it but it brings little new to the series.

[Domenico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book review for those who have read the previous 12 books of S.M. Stirling’s Emberverse series of apocalyptic fiction, but haven’t read the 13th book in the series, *[The Prince of Outcasts]*. If you have not read the series, stop right now and go buy the first novel *[Dies the Fire]* or better yet, go buy the [11-volume bundle] and get the discount now. You’ll end up reading the whole thing anyway.

As for the current book, we pick up where *The Desert and the Blade* left off, on the coast of southern California, a great storm suddenly sweeping one of our protagonists off to the West, leaving our other protagonist on shore, trying to figure out what she’s going to tell their Mother.

Like the fourth through 12th novels of the series, this 13th installment isn’t a single contained story. The first three books of the Emberverse were a trilogy, telling a complete story about the first generation of those who survived the Change. The next three told a classic “beginning/middle/end” quest story of the next generation, but they’re not the whole of that story.

The next four after that continue the tale of the second generation, but the pacing and plot shift. No longer are we moving forward in quest-style story, but we’re jumping around in time and place, back and forth across the continent. The pace of the action slows to a crawl. And that’s the sticking point for some fans. They’re so used to a different pace that this feels too slow. In fact, one of the books feels like it’s all about just a single battle!

Finally in the 10th book, the enemy that has been the focus of the previous six is confronted. What’s next?

In the 11th book, we jump forward a couple decades to the third generation and the torch is passed. A new, but familiar enemy is confronted: the North Koreans have become a demonic force in the Pacific Ocean, eerily similar to the Cutters of Montana from before. But our heroes have a new ally as well in the remnant of Japan that clings to life against the North Korean horde. Having completed a sacred quest for a holy weapon (reminiscent of the earlier quest in books 4 through 6), the beginning of *Prince of Outcasts*, the third book of this third generation, sees the company of companions split by circumstances, half tossed (literally) to an area of the post-Change world we have not yet seen and the rest left to prepare for war.

The parts that focus on Prince John are the best bits, of course, given the title. We follow their epic journey across the ocean, pursued by a fanatical cannibalistic enemy into the Indonesian and Malaysian islands north of Australia. We also get a peek at Australia too.(fn) They get into a number of scrapes and battles, meeting interesting people, and pretty much have all the action.

Meanwhile, Princess Orlaith and her group don’t do much of anything. They travel here and there, and have lots of conversations, but not a lot actually happens.

Here’s the thing about the Emberverse series as it stands now. These books have come to feel more like Stirling’s exploration of this world and less like an attempt to tell a story about it. Don’t get me wrong: there is a good plot here with plenty of twists and turns. But Stirling wants to look at all the details, with pages written about meals and the food eaten and how they eat it and where it came from and what it tastes like. We have long descriptions of grasslands and cattle-grazing and harvesting and how people live in these post-apocalyptic communities that are based on pre-modern societies but with all the modern ideas of technology and hygiene.

That’s not to say it’s bad. World-building is one of my favorite pastimes. My favorite author, J.R.R. Tolkien, was the king of world-builders. But Stirling may be the most obsessive of them all. He has admitted to creating such detail for his worlds that if you asked him about the economics of caravans in North Africa post-Change (an area of the world that has never entered his books), he’d be able to give lengthy notes. Because he’s already thought about it.

All that is to say that fans of the Emberverse will, of course, want to read *Prince of Outcasts*. Those who read some and dropped off, I would encourage to come back and try again. The pace has picked up a bit. And if you haven’t ventured into the world of the Change yet, come on in. It’s fun.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lord have mercy, Mr. Stirling, if I wanted to learn about sailing a ship, I would check a book out of the library, or go take sailing lessons.

This is another "Here is the way we fight, dress, and brush our hair, ever since the Change-O." Too much nothing, not enough story. He spends pages on what people eat, and why. Also, I noticed you have started to end all your books with cliff-hangers. We all have noticed. That is a sign you are afraid we are going to give up in disgust.

Here is the thing, I will finish this trilogy. Or quadrology or whatever, but once the Korean's assets are handed to them on a plate, I am washing my hands of this series. If I want to read something good, I'll reread the first three books and let Mr. Stirling get on with his sociological study of Post-Change weaponry, religion, clothing, and methods of transportation.

Disappointed, very disappointed.

[David Worrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

With each book in this series it becomes more obvious that Stirling is just flailing around with no real goal in mind, and the Ye-Olde-RenFaire-Celt-speak and the pseudo-Viking babble become more and more tiresome.

I really enjoyed the Nantucket books and the early books in this series, but I don't think I'll bother with the next one.

[Helga Raats · Rating 2 out of 5]

This latest installment in the Emberverse world left me feeling disappointed. What I loved about the first 10 novels was that there were so many different characters that were interesting and fun. Now the focus is too much on the main characters which makes the others feel a bit flat. And the storyline lacks depth. Still love this world !

[Sylvia McIvers · Rating 2 out of 5]

memo to self - wait for the whole trilogy.

The Story So Far: The Emberverse started with an SF bang - changing the laws of the universe! Two trilogies later, the next generation [tm] was straight up high fantasy, complete with a prince on a quest for a sword. OK, next generation recycled the quest for a new sword and opened up the Emberverse to distant continents.

The story Here: Golden Princess Orry has been naughty, running off to help a foreign Empress quest for the Grass-Cutting Sword without getting permission from her own Sovereign: Queen Mom. This book, Orry gets her wrist slapped and off she goes to rusticate. Meanwhile, Prince John's boat gets swept out to sea in a storm, is followed by The Bad Guys on 2 boats. The Bad Guys are offed (after many, many, many pages) by Not Exactly A Sea Dragon in what seems to be a deux ex machina, but is actually a plot point. (um. OK.) The ship makes it to an island, we meet a new group of people, and help them fight their enemies.

Recycled plots are OK, because kids gotta follow in their parents' footsteps.
Boring characters are not OK, because yawning through a book is ridiculous.

The back cover says Prince John has always been the spare, and wants to be a bard. Now he has got to live up to his leadership potential. Can we have some leadership before page 300? and for more than a chapter? Incidentally, cheating on your girlfriend is not leadership, even if neither of you intended to keep the relationship going forever, and even if old girlfriend and new girlfriend eventually decide to be friends - despite the idiot boyfriend.

Excessive focus on non-local food that the royal family eats is excessive - we know that they can afford to import the best, we don't need multiple multi-course meals, complete with sauce and gravy.
At least the excessive focus on how hot it is to fight in full armor, and how someone fast and light might choose to wear minimal armor, is plot relevant.

This book would have been a lot more interesting at 150 pages shorter.

[Judy Aulik · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the lesser books of the Emberverse, in my opinion. As with all the Emberverse/Nantucket novels, you really have to read all the series in order. As this is one of the shorter efforts, less space is devoted to early events which shaped the world. It's fine by me, but will leave all but the most dedicated fans lost.
I understand why SMS has to use more far-flung settings for his long-running series, which is now in the third generation of his post-Change world. However, this novel, featuring Prince John, brother to the heir of Montival, is a weaker effort. The Pacific (I won't be more specific) setting lacks the sense of place that the earlier works hold. Other isolated cultures SMS devised, especially the Scout culture and the lost Jewish tribe, seem more interesting and fully drawn out than that of the two new peoples at war. John himself is a fairly one dimensional character whose fate is left as a cliffhanger.
In contrast, a single fascinating character, Pip, is introduced. She seems to be modeled on a hybrid of characters from A Clockwork Orange and early James Bond works. My hope is that she continues to feature in the changed world.

[Monical · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had given up on the Stirling's "Emberverse" books several books ago, but got sucked into trying this one. Ha, too bad, its really terrible-- lacks character development (though plenty of characters!), full of nautical trivia, lots of battle scenes lacking motivation, and just an all-around rotten book. Stirling missed his chance to redeem this series by switching the lights back on, and has written himself into a total black hole. Hope I remember that when the next one comes out!

[Maurynne Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed. It's a middle book that ends on a cliffhanger and I've advised my spouse to wait until next year to read it. Wish I had. Some good moments, but mostly moving folks from here to there and could have been done in a hundred pages of a longer book that I would rather have read, with the cliffhanger resolved. A waste of a day's reading.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

sigh. I liked this series better back when it was science fiction. This book is just plain too wordy. Unnecessary description taking the plot nowhere, basically just too slow. Details are good and the characters remain interesting. And the food porn. But the pacing is just plain off. And fighting the bad guys just seem like more of the same.

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this story we start to get to know the character of John better, while continuing to also follow Orlaith's adventures. John's part of the book is exciting and intriguing. Orlaith's mostly drags and feels like filler put in the for the sake of filling the book out. Still a good read and recommend if you enjoy the series.

[Nathan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compatriot on the S.M. Stirling Facebook group said not long ago that the Emberverse goes from supernatural post-apocalyptic to high fantasy. Well...they're not wrong, and this installment in the series certainly supports that assertion. I almost gave it 3 stars because of the escalating weirdness (and that's saying something, for someone who's put a lot of weirdness into his own writing), and what often felt like excessive wordiness and exposition. But I found the naval action exciting and the views of what's happening Down-Under fascinating. Two more books in the series, IIRC, so onward!

[Nicole Luiken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure how to rate this one. John's plotline was 4 star, Orlaith's was a three at best.

As usual, S.M. Stirling excels at battle scenes and world-building (even if he does spend far too much time describing food IMHO). John's plotline starts with a huge storm--and the adventure is off. I just wish Orlaith had had more to do.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

For some reason I’m apparently subconsciously still operating under the long lingering misconception that S.M. Stirling is an accomplished and compelling writer. This is the only reason I can imagine why I picked up this book in the first place. I think this wholly erroneous impression I have stems from about 1991 when in collaboration with David Drake he co-wrote the General Series. The early books in the General Series at that time (I should revisit) for me were indeed quite good, but the later books began to wonder afield. And now that I look at the entirety of Stirling’s work I find that there is very little that he has written on his own that I have found of interest. To me there seems to be an almost Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder at work here, wherein the author is so obsessed with creating a non-contextual fictitious anthropological backdrop that the story flounders off into obscurity somewhere in the static of the minutiae.
I find I simply cannot stomach the degree of preoccupation with the idiomatic languages, the depth of the genealogical jibber-jabber nor the detail of the cultural descriptions. Clearly my interests do not jive with those of the author. In finally looking at other reviews I can only assume that some do like this type of writing I do not. I was unable to finish, my regret is that I actually bought this book rather that borrow it from the library. Ugh, I hate when that happens. Good luck!

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this installment to the Emberverse, but, to be honest, it was good but not great. The story begins with the two main characters, Crown Princess Orlaith and her younger brother Prince John splitting up, with John's ship being driven across the Pacific Ocean. That being said, I found the part of the book with the "exiled" prince to be much more exciting (storms, naval battles, and sea monsters - and that's just the beginning) than the chapters dealing with Orlaith (travelling around the Kingdom, court functions, hunts, and mustering for war) that seem to be 90% set up for the next book in the series. While I am frequently annoyed with the fantasy (*cough* magic sword *cough* two magic swords *cough-cough*) aspects of the series, I did like the introduction of "Mythos-y" elements (actually inspired by Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow rather than HPL himself). The story ends with a nice cliffhanger. I am looking forward to reading #14 (the Sea Peoples), which, because I allowed myself to get behind in the series, I don't actually have to wait for.

Reading #2. Basically the same although on this go-round I did notice that Stirling brings up regional foods and feasting a lot. I suppose that makes sense as the series is well past the mass-starvation of the first years of the change. Liked that this book gives updates on what has been happening in the Pacific Islands of the Emberverse. Still sticking with the 3 stars.

[Michael Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Am starting to get tired of all the blah blah blah blah in this series. Also how we have some action, then lots of blah blah chapters and then a bit of action which cuts off at the typical cliff hanger ending. And now we seem to be getting into a Cthulhu aspect. Too much woo-woo with the bad guys at first and now with the Korean version but to add a south seas supernatural plot is just a bit too much. We seem to have a series with the Princess and the Japanese vs Korea and now the Prince and Bali/Australia vs The Elder Gods. Give us a break.

[Alex Halo · Rating 1 out of 5]

After a major pick-up in action and story, we return to the slow motion slog that SM Stirling seems increasingly insistent on churning out to pad out a 3-book story into 5 books.

The only significant positive thing I can say is that finally, after being introduced right at the beginning of "The Golden Princess" to the new Australian kingdom in a bizarre and pointless chapter, we return to it after 2 full books and years of literally no further mention of it. By which point in time it would be necessary to re-introduce it all.


But instead of that, we get SM Stirling's favorite bit of digression: endless long and droning descriptions of everything.


More than half the book consists solely of physically describing objects and locations, even (or especially) when they play no further role beyond their introduction.

Entire conversations that would normally be only a minute or so long are often derailed by paragraphs and paragraphs of needless exposition, sometimes not even of anything related to the conversation or the people speaking but just to describing the history of their dialects or the nuances of their speech or just the history of how their ancestors came to be in the general region due to the Change.


In a previous book I mentioned how every time the story got derailed by the endless pointless exposition and descriptions I would audibly go "Oh my god". This book is shorter than that one yet prompted an equal amount of "Oh my god"ing as the longer book.


All this droning is not helped by the fact that the writer has a very narrow and specific vocabulary he sticks to that often becomes painfully repetitive. The most glaringly obvious example is when he describes (over and over and over again) someone as giving someone else a "pocky eye" or a "hairy eye", or "cocking an eye" at someone, even in circumstances where such a statement gives the impression the person is able to move their eyes independent of each other.


Another thing which has significantly gotten worse is the almost clinical obsession literally every single character has with little religious rituals and prayers that are described every single time to such a degree that you read about them more often than you read actual main plot events unfolding.


It's so bad it reaches the degree that it could be considered a mental illness; every single time someone just mentions something remotely spooky or unusual, all the Christians are depicted as signing themselves with the cross, all the viking types as depicted as signing themselves with thor's hammer, all the Old Religion types are depicted as signing the pentagram.

Every single time.

Every time they sit down to eat or drink, every single person makes a little prayer that often becomes a whole paragraph or more in length due to the many different religions depicted.


And another related thing which has driven me mad since the middle of the series, the writer is obsessed with war cries in battle, all the time.


Literally every soldier in every army regardless of culture is depicted as having a needlessly complicated war cry which they are depicted as shouting Even When they are supposed to be hiding for an ambush!


Even when they have been in battle for hours and should be exhausted and winded they are depicted as wasting precious oxygen and saliva hooting their stupid little war cries as if all of them had OCD.


I harp on all this because it is literally what more than half the book harps on incessantly. Even when the main story is trudging along, more time is wasted on this needless padding and obsessive attention to rituals and hooting that it becomes a serious distraction to the story itself.


There's been multiple moments where a setting is introduced, then buried under endless paragraphs of pointless description, then a complicated series of actions take place which are almost impossible to follow along with because the necessary setting details have been long forgotten several pages back while the author was busy dithering about the Morrigu or how handsome everyone is or the buildings use rammed earth construction in such a genius way.


It also doesn't help that entire chapters jump between action scenes unfolding with Prince John in the Oceania region, only to be interrupted by pointless descriptions and exposition in Portland with Orlaith and others, only to return to Prince John's POV literally one second later, leaving you partly disoriented if you put the book down at any point between chapters longer than a few days.


And just to top it all off and make it worse, the sense of heroic invincibility which has been following these characters overall since arguably even the time of Rudi MacKenzie is even worse and on full display here.

Unlike previous encounters and events, there's absolutely no point in any situation anywhere where a major named character is in any real peril or risk of serious injury or death. None of the Montivalans, who have been born and raised in a medieval-level society in Northwest America and end up shipwrecked in Australia then head to Bali, even catches a cold or has an allergic reaction to anything on the almost complete opposite side of the world in an era without mass vaccination or mass travel.


This series, which wasn't particularly hard science or scifi to begin with, has been gradually devolving into pure fantasy in all the worst ways, and without even making up for it by being well-written or an exciting read.

[Kathleen Schrieber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointed!! This book basically went nowhere, you got way to much unneeded descriptions of buildings and clothing. This book was one third plot and two thirds stuffing. I hope that Mr. Stirling hasn't run out of ideas for where the story should be going. Also forgot that Fred Thurston's wife's name id Virginia, not Victoria. If his readers can remember these things why can't author and editor?

[Mick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yawn, typical serial grinder author. If I didn't get the book free from the library I wouldn't buy it. Stale drawn out story, too much detail, not enough story. If you have anything else to read on your list, save this till you're desperate.

Oh yeah, bad cliff hanger ending. Gee I can't not hardly wait for the next book. (Sic)

[Larry Wegman · Rating 2 out of 5]

#13 in the Emberverse series. While I appreciate that Stirling explores more of the world, he's moving more into a realm of sword and sorcery (and sex), and away from survival and rebuilding in a post-apocalyptic world (laws of physics changed so that electricity and explosions, beyond extremely low levels, don't work).

[DeAnna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, probably my least favorite of all the Emberverse books so far. I'm not as interested in this generation of characters, and I'm also less interested in the location. I'll keep reading the series as S.M. Stirling writes them, but I definitely won't reread this book.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

That feeling when you're binge-reading a new-to-you book series and finish the newest book...

[Ryan Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good solid novel from this series. Not in any way extraordinary, but the world is exceedingly well-crafted and the characters have heft and life.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting characters and setting with the Prince John storyline intercut with the Princess eating meals. Can someone get this guy an editor?

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot to pick this up last year when it was released, so got it this fall as the next one was published. Turns out that was a serendipitous choice, as this one ends on a heck of a cliffhanger!

As might be expected, this book picks up where the previous one left off, with Orlaith and Reiko having just obtained the Grasscutter Sword and faced down some of the evil ones that have taken over Korea. Prince John, Orlaith's younger brother, is on one of the ships from Montival when a powerful wave strikes and carries them far, far out to sea, soon to be chased by more of the evils embodied in the Korean people. His adventures make up the bulk of the story, with Orlaith and Reiko returning to Montival to deal with the fallout from Orlaith's trip and the budding alliance between the two countries.

This is an Emberverse novel, full of worldbuilding and exploring the Changed world, this time expanding across the Pacific ocean to visit southeast Asia. This author excels at this sort of thing, filling the story with details about sailing (and repairing) ships, plausible societies formed from the survivors of the great Change, and more fantasy elements and gods/powers appearing from the beyond. If you're not one for this sort of detail, right down to the fashions worn at Court and the foods eaten at a feast in Australia, then this book will not be your style. There is plenty of action, moreso than in the previous book that irritated me so, but maybe not as many plotlines and layers as there were in previous novels of the series.

Overall I enjoyed this story a lot, but can easily see where in some ways it's simpler than the early books in the series. I'd like to see more chapters from the POV of other characters, like Reiko and Pip, and not as much of a focus on John and Orlaith, even as I understand they're the central characters of the Montival universe. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

[Matt Mitrovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally posted at: http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2016/09/...

A review of the latest entry in a long-running series is probably one of the hardest to write. There is a lot of summarizing of the entire series, and even if you want to recommend the individual novel, you usually have to warn people they may want to start at the beginning of the series rather than with this specific book. Luckily, Prince of Outcasts by SM Stirling gave us something that is able to stand on its own somewhat and has taken the Emberverse series (which has already evolved from post-apocalyptic to epic fantasy) in a completely different direction.

Prince of Outcasts is the thirteenth book (not counting the various short stories and The Change anthology) in the Emberverse series, where high technology catastrophically failed in 1998 and our heroes (and villains) fought to survive in the changed world. Our story takes place shortly after the events of The Desert and the Blade. Our primary point of view character has switched from Órlaith, Crown Princess of Montival, to her younger brother, John Arminger MacKenzie. He was on the Tarshish Queen when Reiko, the newly-minted Empress of Japan, used the "Grass Cutting Sword" to call a kamikaze to drive a Korean fleet (crewed by the mad descendants of what was once North Korea) away from the shores of Westria (f.k.a. California).

John did survive the divine wind, but his ship is being driven southeast across the Pacific by the surviving Koreans. His luck changes when a forty-foot long saltwater crocodile (whose Wikipedia article convinced me that I probably won't be visiting Southeast Asia or Australia anytime soon) takes out one of the Korean ships and helps even the odds. Still the Tarshish Queen barely escapes the enraged reptile and has to find dry land fast or else it's to the bottom of Davy Jones' locker for the crew. They stumble upon an island of the former Indonesia where two city states are locked in a war of survival. One is a colony of Balinese people, known as Baru Denpasar, who were forced to leave their starving homeland. The other is a colony of pirates who call their city "Carcosa" and are ruled by the "Yellow Raja", pirates who found something very disturbing in the interior of the island.

Because the Carcosan navy would catch them if they tried to leave, John and his allies need the help of the Baru Denpasar, but they will only help if the foreigners (and, more importantly, their catapults) help destroy a Carcosan fort that is sitting on their main water source and threatening them with famine. With the additional help of an Australian princess/adventurer (who dresses like a character from A Clockwork Orange) and her crew of scoundrels, John will lead an army into the interior to face the dangers that await them there. Meanwhile, Órlaith and Reiko deal with the aftermath of their adventure to reclaim the Grass Cutting Sword and prepare for the coming war against Korea.

If all this sounds confusing...it is if you haven't read the first books, but stick with me to the end of this review and I may give you a reason to start reading some of them if you haven't already. I now firmly believe you can probably get away with starting with The Golden Princess (book 11) instead of beginning all the way at Dies the Fire. Why? Because Stirling has decided to mess with our minds by taking this epic fantasy and pushing it into the realm of weird fiction.

You see in the Emberverse series, the question of whether magic exists was left ambiguous in the beginning, but became increasingly more real...and complicated. I will not try to spoil anything, but it was strongly implied that every religion (even atheism) was correct. Additionally, Stirling loves to reference other works. For example, Lord of the Rings references abound in the Emberverse and they are not the only references that Stirling makes. We even see two characters who died in John Birmingham's Without Warning series (another set of awesome high concept books) actually live much longer and wealthier lives in a Darwin, Australia ruled by Birmingham himself. I'm sure there are many other references I missed, but there is a more important reference that we need to talk about.

Speaking of Lord of the Rings, in the Rudi/Artos story arc that precedes Órlaith's arc, the main antagonist appears to be influenced/possessed by a dark entity that reminded me strongly of Sauron. As Órlaith's arc began it appeared at first that the Sauron entity would continue to be the main malevolent force which her father, Rudi, opposed. Which was...disappointing. I didn't want to admit it at first because I have been so invested in the Emberverse series from the beginning, but even with new human agents, the same evil god just didn't do much for me even if I continued to enjoy Stirling's world-building and food porn (which is still strongly present in this book).

Then Prince of Outcasts came along. Some of you who were reading my plot summary carefully may have noticed terms that could be found in Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow. Admittedly, I have never read the book, but I know its an esteemed piece of supernatural fiction and inspired the first season of True Detective. I kind of wish I had read the book earlier because it appears that "King in Yellow" or whomever he represents, will be a major force in the upcoming books. Aspects like a recurring mark, the masked sorcerer, a fortress built of coral, a ship that can't be named and the fact that no one can really look straight on at the city of Carcosa without going insane had a strong Lovecraftian vibe, and the ending of Prince of Outcasts was (without spoiling it) creepy and disturbing...and I desperately want to read more.

You see the Emberverse is like reading your favorite book over and over again. You still enjoy it, but each successive reading isn't as good as when you first read it. Prince of Outcasts is what happens when an eldritch beast grabs the hero and spirits him away right before he is supposed to save the world and get the girl. You know that wasn't supposed to happen, but you really want to see where this is going. If you haven't started reading the Emberverse yet, I think you really should check it out because it appears Stirling is taking our heroes down a dark and disturbing road and I think the series will be better for it.

[Rob Hobart · Rating 3 out of 5]

In hindsight, this is where the third-generation Change arc started to go off the rails. The first three books had been slow-paced but solidly written, with some decent characters (not as original or compelling as those in the second arc, but more than enough to maintain interest), well-written action, a further escalation of the series' epic-fantasy themes, and a nice bit of universe expansion as well (adding Japan and Korea). The spectacular ending of Desert & Blade was especially impressive and promised great things for the rest of the arc.
But at the start of this book, the plot arbitrarily separates Prince John from the rest of the cast and flings him across the Pacific, introduces more new characters who aren't all that interesting while sidelining the main plot of Orlaith and Reiko confronting the Koreans, and suddenly establishes a new threat/evil force (based on the King in Yellow of all things) that had not previously been even hinted at and that seems to break the previously established rules of how the "supernatural" works in the Change-verse. (And which is abandoned unresolved two books later.)
Oh, and it ends on a cliffhanger.
It feels like Stirling got a new idea midway through this arc and tried to shoehorn it in here rather than save it for later. It probably isn't a coincidence that the series' sales started to decline around this time.

[Richard Tolleson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was about halfway through this one, I was thinking, "Oh boy, detail upon detail, can we have some action, please?" Stirling certainly delivers the action, particularly in the latter third of this, the 13th in the series. And he even writes a stirring cliffhanger into the last chapter in a way that doesn't seem cheap or cliched. I have written before of my simultaneous admiration and frustration at Stirling's intention of writing this world in so much detail that we cannot but believe it is real. He does it again here, lulling me into a state of boredom that some days I had to make myself pick up this book. But the action sequences--a sea battle, multiple land battles, and a fight against a deadly sea creature are so satisfying that I'm willing to forgive Stirling's obsession with the minute details of the Emberverse. This certainly is not a book to pick up without reading the previous 12 in the series, and if you've made it this far, you don't need any encouragement to continue. Hang on, brothers and sisters, there are but two books remaining.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pretty decent installment in a very very long series

I will admit that it is getting a bit thin since the day all the technology went away, the story goes on and on and now we're into the third generation, but still interesting enough to read and find out what happens to whoskid and what kind of magic is happening and where the gods are and what they're up to.
It does jump up and back and forth a bit between the brother and sister, with unique locations for each along with unique problems, and since I don't read this serious everyday some of the details about who's who and what's what gets a bit fuzzy, but the author is pretty good about refreshing or framing the people in such a way that you kind of get the gist

[Michael Travis Travis Jasper · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 13th of 15 volumes in the Emberverse series had some wonderful highlights, but disappointed in many ways. The main characters are Prince John, Crown Princess Orlaith and Empress Reiko. They are great people and I like getting to know them better. However, much of this volume takes place in the tattered remains of the Pacific Islands; a region not really familiar to me. I miss the homelands of the High Kingdom of Montival. Places fans have come to love so much. Also, this book was consumed more than ever by minutiae about ships, weapons, and battles. Not what I originally signed on for. For many years, I referred to this series as my favorite. I’m not sure it is any more. Perhaps the remaining to volumes will be redeeming, but their titles and covers suggest otherwise. We’ll see.